Japanese jail bugged by marijuana plants

A Japanese prison is scrambling to eradicate marijuana plants
that keep sprouting up on its exercise ground, officials said.

The marijuana plants started sprouting at Abashiri Prison on
Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido about a year ago, said
prison official Takeshi Okamura. He said officials plucked out as
many as 300 marijuana plants and treated the ground last year, but
several more sprouted again this year.

Prisoners reported them to the guards.

Officials believe the plants are wild.

"Apparently, somebody knew how to tell marijuana from other
plants," Okamura said.

Local botanical experts concluded the marijuana seeds were
inadvertently brought in with the soil used for the exercise
ground, Okamura said.

"It's a headache," Okamura said. "This isn't a farm."

Abashiri Prison, about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) northeast of
Tokyo, currently has about 1,080 male inmates serving terms of up
to eight years in prison.